Batgirl Begins Again
by Blackbird
Summary: Years after the disappearance of the original Batgirl, a new girl has taken up the mantle of Gotham's Dark Knightress


Batgirl Begins Again

Toni Jackson was a fairly average student at Gotham High. She was in the middle of her sophomore year and made decent grades. She had a few close friends but didn't really belong to any of the usual high school "clics". She also wasn't active in any of the after school programs or sports teams. She really just preferred to keep to herself and blend in with the crowd. It was just a natural part of her personality.

One that was actually very beneficial to the idea that had been churning around in her head for a few weeks now. It tied into the one thing that really _did _make her stand out, at least among those who knew her well. She was a completely unabashed Batgirl fan girl. Out of all Gotham's resident heroes, Batgirl just always seemed to click with her. Part of it had to do with the fact that female Caped Crusader had saved her a few years ago when she was a child. The other part had to do with the fact that she loved the whole "girl power" image Batgirl projected. It showed that girls would be just as kick ass as the boys. In it's own weird way it was very inspirational for her.

So, like most fans, she spent much of her younger life following the exploits of her favorite super heroine. She scoured the net for news footage, collected posters, and even went out in a homemade Batgirl costume one year for Halloween. Though it was all in good fun, she did realize she was kind of living vicariously through Batgirl to help bring some excitement into her rather mundane life and there wasn't any harm in that.

But then, suddenly, Batgirl just kind of…disappeared. There was no real news of what had happened to her, she just vanished. Obviously she knew there was never going to be an announcement about it somewhere being that she was a superhero with a secret identity and all, but Toni just couldn't help but wonder what happened to her. Some thought she might have just given up and retired. Others thought she grew out of the Batgirl identity and became another superhero. Which would correspond to the rumors she heard that Robin became that Nightwing guy who watched over Bludhaven. Still, Toni couldn't help but feel something _bad_ had happened to Batgirl. She just wished she knew what.

As if the loss of her favorite heroine wasn't enough, Batman eventually replaced Robin with some girl a month or so back, but showed no hints of bringing in a new Batgirl. Well at least as far as she knew. It still felt like kind of a slap in the face. Obviously it wouldn't be the original Batgirl, but at least the _idea_ of Batgirl would continue on and that was just as important. After all if there can be a second Robin there can be a second Batgirl. There _should_ be a second Batgirl. That was the dynamic after all; Batman, Robin and Batgirl.

And if _Batman_ wasn't going to do something about it _she_ would.

Thus started a rather complicated and totally insane plan in her head. She spent days going over the pros and cons of becoming a masked vigilante. Obviously there was the risk factor involved not to mention as how it would disrupt her normal life. But there was also the glamour and the thrill of it all that just enticed her. While she did like to keep to herself there was that small part of her that wanted something more, something grand. Becoming the new Batgirl was that something.

Once her mind was made up, she spent several weeks covertly gathering the materials she would need to make her costume. Thankfully being the daughter of two workaholic parents had the advantage of being left alone in the house for long periods of time. Still she had to be a little sneaky when getting everything into the house. Not to mention saving up her generous allowance and picking up a few extra chores and odd jobs to make the ends meet. But in the end she had gotten everything she needed.

Of course, _that_ was just the beginning. She still had to put it all together and get a few crime fighting tools of her own. The easiest of which was the stun gun her dad had given her for protection. While he and her mother trusted her alone in the house, they still did live in Gotham and one could never be too careful. In addition to the stun gun, her dad also insisted she enroll in a kickboxing class. Though she was pretty sure this wasn't what he had in mind when he signed her up. The rest of her gadgets relied on more sneakiness and her moderate metal shop skills. She had been able to fashion a few bat-a-rangs for herself as well as a makeshift grapple line. It wasn't as fancy as the stuff Batman used, but it suited her purposes just fine.

With the gear out of the way, she turned her full attention to the costume. The main part of which was just a black, leather catsuit she had to go out and buy. Not the most comfortable thing in the world but it was the best thing she could find that would provide some form of protection while being as flexible as she needed it to be. All she had to do was sew a yellow bat symbol onto the chest to match up with Batman's. She was actually quite happy with out it came out. It was actually two halves that connected together when the suit was zipped up. Of course that ended up being a piece of cake next to having to sew together the cape and cowl.

Thankfully the rest of the costume was easier to put together. Like the catsuit they were just items she went out and bought. A pair of midnight blue boots that went up to her knees and matching elbow length gloves. Nothing flashy but they got the job done. The pouches to fit her belt were a little harder to come by but she found enough to work for the stuff she had and just had to dye them yellow to match her symbol. The crowning piece though, and the thing that would make the most difference, was the long red wig she bought. Surprisingly it was a little more than the actual catsuit because it was one of those "real hair" wigs, but it was certainly worth it. Not only did it help conceal her identity further but also it was a great tribute to the original Batgirl.

She stared into her dresser-mounted mirror intently as she carefully placed the wig over her normal short brown hair. She was professional strength spirit gum to keep it in place so she didn't want to mess it up in her first attempt. It took nearly twenty minutes to get the whole thing applied and situated proper but once she was done she hardly recognized herself. An amused grin crossed her face as she shook her head a bit to watch her new shoulder blade length fiery mane swing behind her. It was _definitely_ worth the cost, as it looked perfectly natural and stayed firmly in place. After she had her fun with that, she looked down at her other failsafe detail; a pair of green colored contact lenses. It was a further precautionary measure incase her mask was ever removed in a fight. They would cover up her normally dark blue colored eyes. She flipped the container open and then carefully slipped the tiny lenses onto her eyes. She blinked a few times to get them in place then looked at her reflection again and was once more surprised at how different she looked.

When she was happy with the results of her hair and eyes she turned around to her bed to look at her costume sprawled across it. She took a few deep breaths to try to calm her pounding heart.

"All right, time to suit up," she said to herself with a small smile.

She quickly stripped off her tank top and sweat pants, yanked the catsuit off the bed and slipped into it. She felt a small jolt of excitement race down her spine when the zipper reached the top of the collar. Emboldened by this new spark she pulled on the boots, gloves, belt, cape and finally her cowl. After she carefully threaded the hair of the wing through the hole in the back, she yanked it excitedly over her face, completing her transformation.

A smile now almost permanently fixed onto her face she stepped over to her dresser mirror again to examine the outfit as a whole. It actually worked out much better than she expected. With the dark colors and the cape flowing behind her she could strike quite an intimidating pose. She couldn't wait to see how well it worked on the criminal element of the city.

"All right Gotham, get ready for the all new Batgirl!" she proclaimed proudly.

The End…For Now

**Author's Notes: **So yeah, this one's a bit weird and random I admit. It's actually something I had posted on my DA account for over a year and just this morning figured, "What the hell? I'm gonna go post it." Mostly because I just felt like posting something and mostly because I was going through all the Batgirls I've made up and wanted to do something with them. Oh yes, that's Batgirls plural. Only two actually fit into "The Batman" universe though so I know where to post them if I do more with Toni here or the other one who I am thinking of writing something about. We'll see once I clear up some time in my fic writing schedule.

For anyone wonder, yes, this _does_ fit into the established continuity of my previous "The Batman" fics and is a bit of a glimpse into the future of it. Very brief obviously and given how much I've bounced around in time in my personal Kim Possible universe it's not unlikely we'll see more of this future with Toni and some others I have in mind. Again we'll see.

Also for anyone who may be wondering what Toni looks like as Batgirl you can check out this awesome pic done by my friend Zearth here:

http:/blackbird2. / art/ Batgirl-II- 138601602

And an equally awesome colored version of her without the mask and wig done by Shoot-O right here:

http:/shoot-o. / art/ Batgirl-OC-Toni- 170321716

Just close in the gaps and those should work.

Well that's all for me for now but I should be back around the holidays with some Christmas cheer from Batman and a few of his rogues. Sound odd? Good, that's exactly how it should sound. But if I do my job right it'll actually be quite heart warming.

See ya then.


End file.
